tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34991425488238567402018-10-29T02:22:54.214-07:00Poker With The Sweepthe chimney sweephttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07247770049906697913noreply@blogger.comBlogger56125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3499142548823856740.post-86564206474068454692010-02-01T14:22:00.000-08:002010-02-01T14:28:30.171-08:00These Days.......you'll find me <a href="http://blackbeltpoker.com/blogs">blogging at Black Belt Poker</a>.the chimney sweephttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07247770049906697913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3499142548823856740.post-52585930674625447492009-12-31T15:38:00.000-08:002010-01-04T08:13:46.226-08:00Happy New YearWell, it's a New Year and I've just added up my figures for 2009. Did I get the absolute lot? Did I bollocks. I lost a little over 4 grand over the course of the year. Marvellous.<br /><br />That is actually the first losing year I've had at poker since 1998. Man that really sucks. I hate losing! Oh well, what diff, eh? As long as you're still in action you always have a chance to get out of it.<br /><br />I told the missus about my lacklustre results and her response was, "<span style="font-style: italic;">You're a really good technical player, but you lack oomph</span>". Hmmm, thanks darling. Considering what she knows about poker could be written on the back of a stamp from Lilliput, it's probably a frighteningly accurate comment.<br /><br />I went to the Vic on New Year's Day and another player I respect told me he too had had a losing 2009, so I immediately felt better. Pathetic eh? Just knowing that a fellow reg/nit/rock was also in the red for 2009 somehow legitimised in my mind that poker is tougher and that even good players don't necessarily win.<br /><br />I then proceeded to sit for hours in a very slow 2-5 game waiting for my name to be called for the blinding 5-10 game that was going on the next table. At around 2.30 in the morning knowing that it was now too late for me to get involved in the bigger and better game, I checked the board to see that I was no longer on the list.<br /><br />"<span style="font-style: italic;">Andy</span>", I said, "<span style="font-style: italic;">My name is no longer on the 5-10 list, but you never called me for that game, why not</span>?"<br /><br />Andy gave the board a glance.<br /><br />Kev piped up, "<span style="font-style: italic;">His name was on that list</span>"<br /><br />"<span style="font-style: italic;">Oh sorry, we made a mistake</span>"<br /><br />My form!!the chimney sweephttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07247770049906697913noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3499142548823856740.post-26976929236231866332009-09-26T07:48:00.000-07:002009-09-29T03:35:58.464-07:00Spotted DickRecently I've been lucky enough to get a gig spotting hands for the final table shows that PokerStars have been making for their WCOOP coverage (check out www.pokerstars.tv). In case you don't understand that, I choose which hands get shown in the highlights show.<br /><br />Now sometimes it's pretty gruelling; for instance, for the Badugi final I had to watch over 400 hands and choose twenty of them which would reflect the "story" of the final table. Just trust me when I tell you that that final table took a looooong time (remember, Badugi is played limit).<br /><br />It goes without saying that I have watched some of the world's best online MTTers - players like SCTrojans, djk123, ElkY, BeL0WaB0VE, westmenloAA, Hoss_TBF, Jovial Gent and many others.<br /><br />So you'd think I'd learn something right? Maybe pick up a few extra moves. Nah, not a chance. The other night at the Vic I 3-barrelled some French guy who had already shown a propensity for not letting go of his hands when I held the ol' K9c. That's right, the Sawmill.<br /><br />It's like this y'see. I happened to be spotting the WCOOP Main Event and one of the hands that stood out was eventual winner Jovial Gent raising in the CU (standard) and then 3-barrelling his hapless opponent into submission with Q9 off (standard too, obv). Btw, his third barrel consisted of a huge all-in.<br /><br />Notice that I went one pip higher with my late posish raising hand - being such a nit I can't help but feel like I actually have to "have" something. Also notice I chose to pull the trigger in a 2-5 cash game at the Vic instead of a major online final where there were large payouts and money jumps.<br /><br />Also, notice that I chose to execute this fine manoeuvre at around 4.30am when I was stuck and buried from probably one of the worst plays I have ever made in the 5-10 PLO game earlier on.<br /><br />Finally, notice that none of the players who would expect me to turn over top set at this point (ie most of the regulars at the Vic) weren't there to see me table king-high, so it was pretty much a waste of time and money.<br /><br />One of these days I might get around to actually learning how to play this fucking game...the chimney sweephttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07247770049906697913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3499142548823856740.post-89369850333262588622009-07-24T08:58:00.000-07:002009-07-26T05:32:06.542-07:00It's Good To Be BackI played three events at this year's WSOP and got absolutely nowhere. Surprise, surprise I hear you say.<br /><br />What was really annoying was that I got really ill and ended up lying in bed in my hotel room for the last two and a half days, so I didn't even get a chance to win back the tournament buy-ins in the cash games.<br /><br /><br />And when you're used to the cash games at the Vic even the bad games in Vegas seem super-soft. I played in two very good 2-5 PLO games at the Venetian, one good 5-10 NLH at the Bellagio and one good 5-10 NLH at the Wynn. I heard there were some blinding games at the Rio, but even though the running of the rooms at the Rio has improved I don't really like playing there so I gave it a miss.<br /><br /><br />Being the idiot that I am I kept playing the 20-40 Limit Mix game at the Wynn because I just love mixed games, but I was a definite dog in that game. Included in the mix were three games I had never played before - A-5 triple draw lowball, 2-7 Razz and Crazy Pineapple Hi-Lo.<br /><br /><br />There were at least four or five regulars in that game who were all strong players and at least twice I knew that it was my money they were carving up. Good game selection eh? But I kept playing because I wanted to learn and practise for the WSOP Mixed event which featured mostly limit games. Just watching this one guy Kendall, who I thought was the best player in the game, was an education in itself.<br /><br />The $2,500 Mixed event turned out to be torture, mainly because that's when I started coming down with what may well have been Swine Flu for all I know. I had quite a good table draw as the only player I recognised on it was Clonie Gowan (nice and friendly btw). All around me were other tables that were pro-heavy with plenty of online and live faces.<br /><br /><br />The table next to ours was playing a lot faster than we were and at some point Clonie asked aloud, "<em>Hey, how did those guys get to playing PLO already?</em>"<br /><br />I told her, "<em>They all agreed to omit the Razz section on their table</em>", and she believed me. Hmmm, I obviously need to try this bluffing thing more often...<br /><br /><br />Much as I love Vegas I have to say it was great to be back in the Vic the other night. In the 5-10 NLH game Frank Hughes was mercilessly taunting some young kid who, if he's not careful, could be the next Phil Hellmuth. By that I mean he was not only a bad loser, but a bad winner, at one point telling another player whom he had beaten in a big pot, "<em>See how good I read you buddy? Maybe you want to borrow my sunglasses so you won't give off as many tells next time</em>".<br /><br /><br />This kid also insisted on telling the whole table several times, "<em>The only way you'll get my money is if you have the nuts and I have the second nuts or you hit a two outer against me - it's very hard to win my money</em>".<br /><br /><br />You can imagine Frank's delight when he made a set of deuces on the river versus the kid's pocket kings. The ace-high flop slowed the kid down so you can see why Frank had a stab on the turn. Naturally on the river when he hit Gin, Frank made a nice value bet which had Hellmuth Junior muttering out loud, "<em>Why does this always happen to me?</em>". As he stormed off after being shown the outdraw Frank called out, "<em>Thanks for the call on the river there kid. He's the future of British poker I tell ya.</em>"<br /><br /><br />Btw, did I mention that this kid was flopping sets left, right and centre and making 2-pairs on the turn Vs TPTK every other hand? He was hotter than a whore's drawers. As I moaned about him walking between the raindrops Frank consoled me with one of poker and gambling's profound truths, "<em>Don't worry, he'll be selling the Big Issue in three weeks time... </em>"<br /><br /><em></em><br /><br /><em></em>the chimney sweephttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07247770049906697913noreply@blogger.com52tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3499142548823856740.post-51633561328516084702009-05-29T03:31:00.000-07:002009-05-29T07:30:39.191-07:00How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times And Live?We all know these are desperate times, but it was really brought home to me the other night at the Vic when I found myself in a rather moribund 5-10 PLO game.<br /><br />Six of us were playing (alright, only two were playing, the rest of us were passing until we flopped top set, nut flush draw and the wrap all at once - hey it’s live poker and the Vic, you know how it is, right?) when the dealer asked for the half-hourly table charge.<br /><br />At this point Dave Winston got up and said he was off; something about the game being not much cop and so on. A fairly common scenario in the card room at the Vic and one that happens often.<br /><br />At this point, Lutvi said, “<span style="font-style: italic;">Don’t leave, you’ll break the game up. I’ll give you £100 if you stay</span>”. He was serious by the way, this wasn’t an example of the famous witty banter one often hears about at the Vic.<br /><br />It was somewhat similar to that episode of High Stakes Poker where the whole table chipped in $1,000 each to Mike Matusow to get him to stay in the game. I recall Matusow took up the “generous” offer and ended up doing his cobblers.<br /><br />The thing is though, Dave Winston is a tight, solid winning player and Lutvi is more of an action player, shall we say. That’s how hard times are these days, a loosey-goosey was so worried that the game would break up he was willing to pay a granite player, whom he had very little chance of winning any chips off, to stay in the game! I guess I’ve seen everything now.the chimney sweephttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07247770049906697913noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3499142548823856740.post-26338604994478124592009-04-08T09:01:00.000-07:002009-04-25T13:56:12.183-07:00What Would Fred Do?I played a crazy pot in the 2-5 NLHE game at the Vic the other night.<br /><br />Effective stacks £1,600. Me UTG with KK - I make it £25. Two callers including Tore (sp? He's Norwegian - a very nice guy and guess what? He is a super-LAG. Has anyone out there ever met a Scandinavian player who was weak-tight? I know I haven't) who is the big blind.<br /><br />Flop 9 6 4, two clubs.<br /><br />Tore checks, I bet £75 and before the other player has a chance to act Tore goes all-in for £1,470 more!<br /><br />WTF!!!???!!! Jeez, that is a highly aggressive check-raise. Most likely a draw, but having played with Tore a little bit I also know he could do this with two-pair, maybe even a set, a small percentage of the time.<br /><br />As I'm thinking about it, Tore even names my hand -"<em>Maybe you have pocket Kings?" -</em> which is always unnerving.<br /><br />After a long dwell I make the call - turn 7, river 10, no club. I turn my hand over and Tore tells me it's good.<br /><br />Tore later tells me that he had 7c5c, "<em>It was a sick raise, but you made an even sicker call</em>".<br /><br />In other words, I was a small dog and made an iffy call. So how did I, one of the tightest poker players to ever walk the planet, call such an insane all-in raise?<br /><br /><p>Thinking about it, I realise that many roads led me to saying, "<em>I Call</em>", closing my eyes and pushing my chips into the middle.</p><p>1) I was losing - that should be obvious. But, believe it or not, I wasn't really steaming even though the very first hand I sat down I'd lost a big all-in pre-flop coup with aces Vs kings (K on the turn). After this standard bad beat I'd pulled up and won a nice pot with pocket queens against Ron Seymour, so I had recovered a little and was not feeling tilty. </p><p>Having said all that, I was still thinking about a big pot I had lost the previous time I had been to the Vic - once again with aces, where I felt I had misplayed them on the flop, so I guess deep down I was trying hard to not make another mistake.</p><p>But that's not all! Another hand from probably two weeks ago was on my mind too. This particular coup was one where I dogged it on the river when I knew that a bluff would have had a decent chance of succeeding.</p><p>So, yes, a couple of hands now lost in the swirling mists of time were having an affect on me, and yes, I know that sort of stuff shouldn't have any bearing on the pot you're in at that instant, but it's amazing how all the poker one has played over the years does have a bearing on what you're about to do. I mean, think about it, if you actually are trying to win you have to have learnt something somehow from all the previous times you have played. </p><p>In other words, I was trying to make up for past poker sins. </p><p>2) As soon as Tore said all-in I kind of knew I was going to call. I guess because I know he views me as a tight player, probably even a total nit, so, for purposes of the meta-game I have to let him know I can't be pushed around. In fact, it would have been even better to insta-call because that's what I felt in my heart of hearts I was going to do, as that would have blown him away ("<em>Wow! How the fuck could you call so quickly?!?"). </em><br /></p><p>3) I really believed I had the best hand, and I guess old habits die hard, but back in the day you would put the money in if you thought you were winning. I realise nowadays you work out your equity in the pot and your opponent's range and all that shit (actually, I did think about Tore's range and had decided, perhaps wrongly, that he wouldn't play a made hand like two-pair or a set this way). I decided to not let the fact that I was probably flipping - something I'm not really that keen on usually - distract me.</p><p>4) I had the king of clubs in my hand.</p><p>5) Finally, if in doubt, ask yourself, "<em>What would Freddy Carle do?</em>" </p>the chimney sweephttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07247770049906697913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3499142548823856740.post-14250532082149026092009-03-23T09:23:00.001-07:002009-04-08T09:01:41.329-07:00SwapshopWhat is it that sets the great tournament players apart from the rest? Knowing when to change gears? Knowing the right spots to squeeze? Knowing when not to flip?<br /><br />I realised the other day that all of the above, whilst useful, is not really the answer. No, the answer is knowing who to swap %ages with. I remember noticing that the Camel and Channing (Neil not so much these days as he tends to just put players in) always seemed to have little percentage savers with 4 or 5 out of the top nine in every tournament they played.<br /><br />Yes, true, it's the old fashioned way of "getting out of it" as these days any player worth their salt has hustled up some kind of backing/sponsorship (Neil can be found most days at the Vic, table 21, in case you're wondering).<br /><br />Anyway, I must be getting the hang of it as it's the second time in a row I have managed to recoup about 80% of the £550 buy-in that I had laid out in the triumph of hope over experience that is the Vic's bi-annual PLO8 tournament.<br /><br />Somehow I managed to persuade the Champ, JQ, Shoreman and Paul Parker to swap 5% with me. In fact, Paul Parker insisted on swapping with me even though the last time he played it he barely got the buy-in back after winning it and paying off his make-up to Neil and then a 5% saver we had agreed on late in the tournament when we both had similar chips. At the time I had no idea he had been "put in" and probably wouldn't have asked him if I had known for fear of him laughing in my face.<br /><br />This time it wasn't Paul, but international luckbox Shoreman who did the business. Cheers Jon, one of these days I'll make a final table or something...<br /><br />I guess I feel pretty honoured that those four players would want a saver with me - although if they'd seen the way I was playing sometimes, I'm not too sure they would want to do it again.<br /><br />In his infinite wisdom, Jeff saw fit to change what is usually quite a fun crap-shoot into a two day tournament. That meant a slower structure and thus more skill and thus.... - I suppose it would seem churlish to complain about getting a tournament with a higher skill factor, so I'm not going to, but, god, at times it did seem excessively s-l-o-o-o-o-w.<br /><br />I started off playing terrible, impatiently raising with J89Q (did I mention that it was HiLo?) and then betting a board of T 7 7. Yep, you guessed it, I was drawing dead and paid off some random stranger who held TTA2 (just for shits and giggles he made the nut low too; turn 8, river 4).<br /><br />I make a point of telling you my opponent was a random stranger because the field in this two-day event, about 54 runners so you can see why they needed it to be extended, tends to be every face that's been on the London poker scene for the last ten years or so.<br /><br />Somehow I managed not to donk off the rest of my chips and even got a double up courtesy of Chufty. Things were looking ok further down the line when another wierdo stranger decided to raise all-in on the river when he had second best both ways Vs me and Surinder Sunar - sweet.<br /><br />Things went downhill from there and I played a pot badly against Shorewoman opening the door for him to bluff me (doubtless you'll complain about weighing in, but you owe me you bastard - if it wasn't for this hand you might not have won, fucker).<br /><br />I had tons of marginal hands where it seemed like the best play with my stack and the slower structure was just to chuck 'em away. At one point I made an overly tight fold against Andy Ward who had raised early. I was in the SB with A2TK (single suit) and deciding that Andy had been playing fairly snug plus the fact that I was OOP I threw the hand away. In retrospect I think this was a pretty poor fold. I mean, jeez, wtf was I waiting for?<br /><br />I think my mind was harking back to one time years and years ago at the Horseshoe in Vegas when a good player I know was sitting in a $4/$8 limit O8 game with his case money. He was getting down to the felt when I watched him fold A2xx to a raise. I had only been playing for about 3 years (that's roughly the equivalent of about two weeks online for you young 'uns out there) so I was astonished that he could lay down such a "good" hand. I distinctly remember him telling me that he could wait for a better hand, one with three low cards in it.<br /><br />Of course, that was a limit cash game and I was playing a tournament where you don't have the luxury of time, so fuck knows why I was thinking about that. A2KT is like the crown jewels in this sort of tournament - I must have been out of my fucking mind. I did have some weird head cold that I'd caught off my daughter, so I was feeling super-tired, but still...<br /><br />The funny thing is that I told Rob Sherman who was sitting next to me what I had folded and he was perplexed and appalled that I could make such a terrible laydown - rightly so - and told me.<br /><br />Not too long after I came in for a pre-flop raise with A36K and he re-raised me. Knowing that he knew that I had made such a horrible tight fold earlier I stuck it all-in. I'm sure in his mind he had extra fold equity against me now - I probably would've re-raised all-in anyway so how much difference that little tidbit of knowledge made to the hand I don't know, but there were plenty of oohs and aahs when the rest of the table saw my hand - "<em>A3? Fucking hell, he's stuck it all-in with A3?!?"</em> Especially when Rob turned over A2K4. Naturally we ended up splitting the pot anyway.<br /><br />I also blew JQ's mind when he sweated me after he got knocked out and my stack had dwindled down to about 5 BBs. UTG I threw away KK5T (was it sooooted JQ?). Personally I feel this play is ok and would rather take my chances in the blinds, but he was clearly horrified. He's a better player than me so maybe he's right.<br /><br />But, I think the problem with going all-in there with these dodgy kings is that, assuming you don't run into a good hand, both blinds are likely to take you on which means they'll do the ol' check-it-down-to-the-river-let's-see-if-one-of-us-can-knock-this-cunt-out-routine. Plus you have no way of making a low, so I'm pretty sure it's a good fold.<br /><br />As it happens I ended up going all-in and getting knocked out with KK89 double suited which isn't much better so I'm clearly talking total bollocks...the chimney sweephttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07247770049906697913noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3499142548823856740.post-47722474153552154742009-03-10T07:36:00.000-07:002009-03-10T09:04:36.807-07:00Everybody Was Kung Fu FightingI've played and witnessed a few interesting hands at the Vic recently.<br /><br /><strong>Hand #1.</strong><br /><br />2-5 NLH. I limp UTG with 33 and a few others follow suit. Flop 3 8 7 badugi, £30 in the pot. I lead for £20. Next guy folds and now the villain springs to life with a raise to £50. Everybody folds back to me and I call.<br /><br />The villain in question is a regular at the Vic who I have played a fair amount with, not a lot, but enough for me to know that he is a super-loose passive calling station. A typical move by him would be to cold-call a raise and a re-raise out of position etc.<br /><br />As far as I know, he never raises on the come (unless he is going all-in with his last bit of scratch) or makes flairy raises because he thinks he can push you off a hand and so on. In fact, I would argue that this guy (a very nice guy btw who loves his roulette) is the epitome of a loose-passive calling station.<br /><br />Turn 8. Hmmm, I check. He now gives it the dwell and checks too.<br /><br />River T (putting a backdoor flush out there). I now bet £75. He fiddles about with his chips for a bit (<em>jeez, I wonder how much he's gonna raise?</em>) and makes it £250. Marvellous. I fold.<br /><br />Great, the first full house I've made in about 100 years at Holdem and I feel I have to fold it. The thing is, I'm pretty confidant that the villain in question would not raise there with just trip 8s. If he had a straight or a flush he would just call me down. On the flop he is not raising me with just top pair - ok, maybe he was raising with an over-pair, but if so, these too are hands that he would just call on the river with as opposed to raising.<br /><br />I know you're supposed to assign a range of hands that your foes can have these days, but I have to say that when he raised me on the flop I immediately put the villain on top two (i.e 87 in his hand) and I have to say that further action down the streets only strengthened that belief. Of course, I could be wrong and I was totally outplayed in which case kudos to him and I'm an idiot (we know that already, so that's no big deal).<br /><br />As it happened there was a pigeon-y kind of player (that's more original that fishy, isn't it?) who was incredulous that I folded such a strong hand and was convinced that the villain had a straight (he might be right, we'll never know). As we discussed it, a young player on my left who seemed pretty solid to me agreed with my analysis of the situation (confirmation bias FTW).<br /><br />I told Panni about the hand too (he knows the villain in question) and before I even finished the story he said, "<em>87, definitely 87</em>" - without a doubt I respect his opinion so in my mind I really feel I made a good fold there.<br /><br /><strong>Hand #2.<br /></strong><br />2-5 NLH. A strong, solid TAG player limps UTG, another player limps and I raise to a pony with AhKh in the cutoff. One of the blinds call, the TAG calls as does the other limper after him.<br /><br />Flop T K 3 badugi, about £100 in the pot. Checked around to me and I bet three farmers' daughters (that's £75 to those of you who can't speak cockney poker jargon - far superior to young american collegiate poker jargon imo). The BB folds and now the TAG check-raises to a bottle (£200 - alright, alright, I'll stop). The other player gets out of the way and now the action is back on me. I neglected to mention the stack sizes - approx £1,300 for the TAG and I had him covered.<br /><br />Hmmm, what to do? This particular villain is a super-solid player who really knows the game. I've tangled with him before and I know he respects my game (as he knows that I respect his etc). What I haven't mentioned is that in this particular game he was getting beat up pretty bad. Not that he was on tilt or anything, he's too good a player to have serious steam issues, but he was having one of those sessions where he just could not win a hand no matter what he did.<br /><br />As I pondered my next move it struck me that I was only really worried about a set of 3s or top two (i.e KT in his hand). Also, that check-raise was kind of small, pretty weak-looking when you think about it. Also, my bet just looks a standard c-bet. Fuck it, I've got the best hand here. Raise! £500 to play.<br /><br />Of course, if I think I have the best hand there is an argument for just calling - I am in position after all - and letting my foe bluff off a few more chips. But I think if I call it could lead to a tough spot further down the line, especially as I'm up against a good player.<br /><br />Anyway, as I said, I raised and after not too much thought the TAG folded.<br /><br /><strong>Hand #3.</strong><br /><br />I wasn't in this one, just happened to eyeball it firsthand. 5-10 PLO. There's been a raise and re-raise and somehow four players have all put in £395 before the flop. Incidentally, the stacks were quite shallow in this hand apart from Mike Ellis who had about 3 or 4 grand in front of him.<br /><br />Flop 9 9 5 (badugi again, I think). Vach, who I think was in the BB now leads out all-in for £685. After longish dwells both the raiser and re-raiser pre-flop fold and now the unbluffable calling station star.....folds too. Unlucky Vach, no action for your 9TJK or your 5s full.<br /><br />Vach now turns over his hand. KJ87!! Wow, now that's what I call luck. To bluff pure air (apart from the gutterball straight out) with a bet of a bit less than half the pot into three players behind you in a lively PLO game and get away with it means you must be living right.<br /><br />In case you're wondering about the title of this post - last night I went to Neil's unveiling of his new business/web site blackbeltpoker.com which looks like it could be the nuts. It was a really good presentation and considering that Channing can talk the hind legs off several mules he was really concise and to the point. I wish him the best of luck with it and suggest you check it out (they're going live in early April).the chimney sweephttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07247770049906697913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3499142548823856740.post-2612263637469266002009-02-07T10:23:00.000-08:002009-02-20T18:54:10.084-08:00It Could Be WorseTom Gibson accused me of being a lazy bastard the other day, so I figure it must be time for another missive from the front line, aka the 5-10 PLO game at the Vic.<br /><br />Hugh Buchanon is a fixture at the Vic card room these days, mostly doing his brai- er, playing, in the 5-10 PLO game. As anyone who has come across him knows, he is a well-spoken black gentleman who spends most of his time complaining about his bad luck.<br /><br />Some of you may recall me writing about other whingers at the Vic, but, believe you me, Hughie-Buwee (as I once heard Panni call him) makes those other whiners look positively stoic. Without a doubt, we have a new world champion moaner in our midst.<br /><br />So the PLO game is going and it's blinding and Hugh is super-steamed up, almost crying with frustration with how terrible his form is (I mean, the guy does play every hand and somehow ends up flopping monster wraps and flush draws every time which proceed to always miss - this poor sod is obviously cursed).<br /><br />Now also seated in the game is a certain face who I don't know, which is unusual for me as I am pretty friendly with most Vic habituees. Nonetheless, all the other faces on the poker scene know him well.<br /><br />Well a huge pot develops and as usual Hugh is on the losing end of it. After the cards are flung and a load of bellyaching from Hugh there is a bit of an awkward pause while the dealer gathers up the cards and shuffles for the next hand and everyone else wonders whether Hugh is going to pull up.<br /><br />The silence is broken by the face saying, "It could be worse Hugh, you could have been born 60 years earlier - then you would have been a slave..."the chimney sweephttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07247770049906697913noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3499142548823856740.post-54837230140875863862009-01-03T06:45:00.000-08:002009-01-10T10:28:12.853-08:00Happy New YearThere's something about the festive season which seems to inspire fantastic action at the poker tables. Maybe I've been lucky, but the last few times I've been at the Vic I have played in some blinding games. PLO seems to have had some sort of resurgence recently and quite a few of the old donators, and a couple of new ones too, have been making the games very playable.<br /><br />Last night I played in a tremendous 5-10 NLH - possibly the best mixture of rocks and Charlie Chuckaways I can remember in a long time. Most everybody was playing loose-passive thus ensuring plenty of opportunities to see a cheap flop.<br /><br />There was one absolute superstar who basically called every bet no matter what the board was, the river would usually put the world's fair out there, flushes, straights, full houses, you name it, and every time he would either fold to a bet or his opponent would show something like top pair weak kicker and he would then nod his head indicating that he was beat. It was amazing, wtf was this guy calling with every time?<br /><br />He eventually went over to the Omaha game and ran £400 into about 3 grand and then lost it all in one hand when he flopped a straight against someone else with the same hand and a freeroll which got there (I know this because naturally I followed this star to the Omaha game).<br /><br />In the Holdem game I played with somebody I used to play with about 5 or 6 years ago in the old £50 Round of Each days. This particular player was pretty loose and used to call raises with any two or four in any position and take all sorts of flyers on the flop and turn with all sorts of funky hands. Sometimes he could be quite tricky to play against, but on the whole he got out of line way too much.<br /><br />Anyway he comes and sits down in the 5-10 game and I'm thinking to myself, "Yum-yum! Put on your seatbelts, it's gonna be a bumpy ride!" But hold on, did aliens kidnap this guy and replace him with some kind of granite clone? He barely played a hand! One time he even just flat-called a raise with pocket jacks - in the old days that was an automatic three-bet, don't you worry 'bout that!<br /><br />Of course what I was witnessing here was somebody playing out of their comfort zone and just as I was noting this fact to myself an interesting situation arose. The player on my left straddled to a pony and everybody folded to my old R of E mate who now made it £30. Er... there's been a straddle actually so that counts as a call. Did I mention that this old nemesis wasn't exactly the observant type?<br /><br />The SB folds and I find AK in the BB so seeing as my old R of E villain was interested in raising I take the cautious route and just make up the straddle. The straddler checks and the hare is running.<br /><br />K 7 6 on the flop so I lead out for a bullseye. The straddler folds and now my foe makes it £150. I realised it was very likely he had the same hand as me - I ruled out pocket 6s or 7s as likely holdings as he had not raised with those sorts of hands at all (although that was his modus operandi in the smaller R of E games back in the day).<br /><br />I called his £100 and raised another £200. He was immediately taken aback and started going on about how I must really like the flop and so on. "You've flopped some kind of weird two-pair haven't you?" he said, "Alright, I'm laying down Ace-King here".<br /><br />Because of our history (and my cuntish ego, yeah alright I admit that) I couldn't resist showing my hand which then caused him to splutter, "But you're a tight player! I can't believe you re-raised with that!"<br /><br />Ok, it's not much of a story and a rather minor triumph on my part, but I thought it was kind of interesting how differently this guy played in this game compared to a smaller buy-in game, and how his pride wouldn't let him admit that he was playing differently.the chimney sweephttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07247770049906697913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3499142548823856740.post-2908347540366820422008-11-17T06:38:00.000-08:002008-12-16T05:51:01.145-08:00Do Poker Players Tell Lies? Does The Bear Shit In The Woods?There's a new foreign player at the Vic who has become quite a regular (I'm not going to write his nationality to spare any embarrassment he might feel at the following anecdote).<br /><br />Once you start going to any card room for a while it doesn't take long before you get to know a few of the other locals/regs/pros/layabouts/chancers etc. After a while you feel like one of the boys, maybe you're a fellow shrewdie, hustling "tourists" out of their money. You're not some egg who just got off the banana boat are you? You're a face, just like some of these other long time players who seem to be showing you some respect and letting you into their secret world.<br /><br />But are you?<br /><br />It's the 5-10 game and Declan is in seat 9 and he is drunk. When I say he is drunk, he is <span style="font-style: italic;">lit up </span>like a Christmas tree. Still, seeing as it's Declan, he is still playing good poker, even though it means he is playing wild and crazy instead of his usual granite style (when sober of course).<br /><br />But even four sheets to the wind Declan is no idiot and in fact his wild and crazy drunken antics, which include bluffing pretty much every pot he enters, actually means that he is still not risking barely 1 or 2% of the money he has in front of him. Plus of course all the banter and witticisms are now twice as loud, but still quite funny.<br /><br />Anyway, the new foreign player (NFP from now on) is in the game and, to my eyes at least, it's clear he is seeking Declan's approval. He is laughing the loudest at Declan's wisecracks and lapping up Declan's crazy bluffs. This NFP is also one of these players who loves to call raises with trash and then "outplay" his opponents. He likes to draw attention to this fact and several times already he has told the table that, "It's no secret in this club that I don't mind gambling".<br /><br />I can't remember the pre-flop action (but there was bound to have been a raise), but all of a sudden Declan and the NFP are heads-up on an ace-high flop. Declan checks, the NFP bets £200 and now Declan makes it £700. While the NFP is thinking about the raise, Declan giggles and tells him that he raised "No look". The NFP asks him if really did raise without looking at his cards and Declan says, " Yeah, sure". The NFP calls.<br /><br />There may well have been another bet at some point, but I can't remember. It doesn't matter as the conclusion of this story is that when it comes to the showdown Declan tables AQ whilst our foreign friend shows AJ for the second best hand.<br /><br />"I thought you said you hadn't looked at your cards? That's why I called your raise", the NFP now whines. Declan, still giggling, says, "I lied, I did look".<br /><br />The NFP is clearly shocked that somebody would lie at a poker game, I mean, gosh, that's outrageous. He tells Declan that he has undermined the integrity of the game (!). Really? Sounds more like you got hustled friend. Of course, if you even vaguely bothered to observe what was going on then you would have seen Declan look at his cards as soon as he was dealt them. But, if you want to believe what a poker player tells you then you run the risk of being made to look like a fool.<br /><br />The upshot of all this was the NFP went on mega-tilt, at one point calling a check-raise from Jackie Barrs (sp?) who won the hand with queen-high (Q2 diamonds on a two diamond flop). And what did our foreign friend call all-in with? The almighty 75 clubs that's what. To be fair he did have six outs so moneywise it wasn't a bad call, but there was no way he could have known his pairing cards were good.<br /><br />I mean, how often do you get check-raised when you are c-betting with 7-high, aka complete air (ok, I think there was an 8 on the flop, so he had a backdoor straight draw, but that was it), and you think, "Ok, I'll call off my last £250 with this" ?<span style="font-style: italic;"></span><br /><br />I actually made a very questionable play against this guy considering how steamy he was playing. He has raised UTG and a bunch of us have called including myself with 89 hearts. The flop comes down two hearts and an 8. The NFP bets £200 and now after a bit of thought and a couple of sly glances to my left to check that the other players behind me didn't seem too interested in the flop I raised all-in to £1,200.<br /><br />Everybody folded back around to the NFP who now made a comment about how I must have flopped top set, but, "Ok, I'll gamble with you". Wow, I reckon my fold equity must have been about 1%, maybe less, so maybe it wasn't really the best of plays getting it all-in with a pair of 8s and a 9-high flush draw. Considering that he thought that he was up against top set, but still called pretty swiftly, showed how much I underestimated the tilt factor.<br /><br />Most of the time when you flop a pair and a flush draw in Holdem it's pretty standard to play it aggressively isn't it? But I think in this particular spot it wasn't the right move. How would all you eggsperts out there play my hand against somebody on triple-tilt?<br /><br />Happily (for me) I made a flush on the river to win a nice sized pot. Even a blind squirrel stumbles across the nuts now and again etc.the chimney sweephttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07247770049906697913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3499142548823856740.post-79958609496084167612008-10-12T08:43:00.000-07:002008-10-12T10:18:31.135-07:00X-Factor 2008The first live show of this season's X-Factor kicked off last night which meant a flurry of texting between me and the Champ. Plus at least two phone calls during the ad breaks to discuss the prices on betfair.<br /><br />I actually didn't realise it was the first live show last night and only tuned into it about halfway through so I missed the Champ's pick for outright winner, Austin. I don't really like to doubt her much as she is a super-canny reality TV/talent show bettor and has done very well on these shows in the past.<br /><br />But, I have to say, I'm not too sure about Austin. To be fair my opinion is only based on the 5 second highlight clip they use in the recaps and the Champ herself said he wasn't very good last night.<br /><br />Still, one of her tips for top groups was Bad Lashes who actually ended up being the first ones out. Oops. Luckily I hadn't noticed recent updates on <a href="http://www.victoriacoren.com/main/blog/archive/cards_song_contests_anything_but_work/">her blog</a> as I made a small bet on them being knocked out.<br /><br />This year looks like it could be quite a good show from a gambling POV as for once the competition seems quite open. For what it's worth I have backed Eoghan, Rachel and Ruth. The last one may not be such a good bet - she's gone right out to 50 on betfair as I type. I must admit I was a bit dazzled by her huge bazongas (as was Simon Cowell, which is probably why her price has drifted). Still, it's early days so who knows. In fact, at that price she might be worth having a bit more of a tickle.<br /><br />I also wanted to have a bet on Laura, but her price is around 2-1 which didn't really get me very excited.<br /><br />What always makes me laugh about X-Factor is the number of people who go on about how shit the contestants are and how the whole thing is a joke and how culture is going down the pan etc. What these high-brow intellectuals don't understand is that X-Factor isn't really a talent/music show - it's a made-for-the-masses TV show, on ITV fer Chrissakes, for families to watch while they have their tea. Essentially it's just a latter-day version of <span style="font-style: italic;">The Generation Game</span> or <span style="font-style: italic;">It's A Knockout</span> or <span style="font-style: italic;">Family Fortunes</span> - pick any popular Saturday night drivel you can think of basically.<br /><br />If you complain that none of the contestants are not in the same class as whoever you think is a brilliant singer/pop star then you are definitely tuning into the wrong show.<br /><br />The only person who seems to have understood this is the Champ of course, which is why she has done so well punting on these shows.<br /><br />Personally, I love popular/low-brow culture. I have always found it fascinating as well as very amusing. The amount of shit I get from my girlfriend for watching X-Factor is ridiculous - she just thinks I'm an idiot and doesn't understand. She's so hung up on liking "cool" music she misses the point. What's really annoying is she then accuses me of having bad taste, when in fact I know so much more about music than her, but, no, that just means I'm a "muso-trainspotter"* - aaaargh, you can't win.<br /><br />Of course, having a few bets on the outcome does make the show much more riveting, but I know I would still watch it if I didn't have any money on it.<br /><br />*Ok, I'll admit there's an element of truth in that.the chimney sweephttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07247770049906697913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3499142548823856740.post-31933677171204237092008-09-24T04:43:00.000-07:002008-10-06T03:56:12.018-07:00WSOPE H.O.R.S.ESo I played the £2,500 HORSE tournament at the Empire - made it to day two, but obviously I'm sitting here writing this while there are still eleven players left in and I'm not one of them.<br /><br />As JQ says, it's fool's gold chasing these elusive tournament/bracelet wins, but wtf, you gotta give the odd one a shot now and then.<br /><br />Even though my day two was real torture I enjoyed playing in this event. I have always loved playing all the games and I have to say that playing limit made a nice change. Loads of interesting situations come up and unlike a no limit tournament it's not the end of the world to get short-stacked.<br /><br />My starting table included Jeff Duval (still in as I write and with a real chance of winning - go Jeff!), Howard Lederer, Jon Shoreman, Richard Ashby aka Chufty, Yuval Bronstein (who made the final of this event last year) and Marc Goodwin. Hmmm, what's that old saying about not being able to spot the sucker at the table?<br /><br />There were three straight-flushes on our table during the first four levels - the funny thing being that on two occasions the players that held them didn't realise that they had the absolute joint in their sweaty mitts.<br /><br />Shoreman was the first perpetrator (very surprising that he would miss that) when he was involved in an O8 hand and turned his hand over at the end saying he just had the low. Hang on, you've got a straight-flush for the high there too! Oops, well we all do silly things like that don't we?<br /><br />Yes, because a bit later on in the Hold'em round I raised with AdTd. Marc Goodwin called in the BB. The flop came down with three diamonds - alright, I've flopped the nuts here. He checked, I bet, he called. Turn card is the Kd. He checks again and now I'm thinking, "<span style="font-style: italic;">Fuck, that fourth diamond has killed my action a bit, but it's limit so I'll bet anyway, fuck it</span>".<br /><br />I bet and now he folds with a grimace, showing a Qs to match the Qd on the board (like a pair of queens was the world's fair or something and how unlucky is he to have had his top pair done on the turn etc) and in the spirit of friendliness that we had all played the tournament so far I showed my hand saying that I had flopped the flush anyway.<br /><br />Hold on, that Kd gave me a Royal! The Jd was on the flop too, you see. Shit, I hadn't even realised, what a doofus. Jeez, I wouldn't have minded giving a free card there - oh well, I'm in an elite club with Shoreman. At least he has the excuse that he was playing Omaha, where your mind can get focused on the main draw you're going for so it's more common to miss a different hand you have made. Or something like that.<br /><br />The start of day two I had a bit of a bad beat when on the very first hand the big blind hadn't showed up. Fold, fold, fold to me and I look down to see the boots. Ay, ay, what a spot to have aces. I've got Barny Boatman, John Juanda and John Phan (SB) behind me, surely one of them is going to think I'm taking advantage of the big blind not being there.<br /><br />I raise, Barny mucks saying what a good bet, but he knows me well, plus he has the other two behind him. Surely these two top class tournament pros, who have never played with me before (ok, I played with Juanda a bit in a WSOP Stud 8 tournament once, but that was only for about two hours about two or three years ago) are gonna think I'm taking the piss and play back at me? Nah, of course not, muck, muck.<br /><br />I guess my granite reputation is world-wide now. Btw, Phan proceeded to play every hand in the rest of the Hold'em round and won about six of them. Marvellous; I guess he just didn't want to get involved in the SB (don't blame him I suppose).<br /><br />I have to say that the atmosphere at the Empire is sort of weird. Business must go on as usual and over half the casino is full of the regular Chinatown punters cracking away at the roulette - they couldn't give a shit about the World Series of Poker. Imagine you're an elderly chinese man who's had a bit too much to drink and now a burly American tournament director comes up to you and tells you that you can't stand in a certain place.<br /><br />I mean, this is where you come every night to gamble and now some guy with an accent you don't understand is telling you where you are allowed to stand whilst all around are a load of buffoons wearing weird clothing with all these funny looking patches that say Full Tilt on them, what the hell are you going to make of that?the chimney sweephttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07247770049906697913noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3499142548823856740.post-56114276079967479222008-09-17T10:05:00.000-07:002008-09-17T10:24:01.186-07:00One For The Moaners - The Vic Moves With The TimesKudos to the Vic for renaming all their games by blind size instead of minimum buy-in size. Now the £100 game is the £1-£3 game, the 200 is the 2-5, 250 is the 5-10 and so on.<br /><br />They've also changed the minimum buy-ins to 40x the big blind, so the min sit down in what used to be known as the £100 game is now in fact £120. The 5-10 (old £250 game, no need for me to tell you that was there?) now has a min sit down of £400.<br /><br />I don't know if it's going to make any difference, but it feels right. More in keeping with the internet and card rooms in America and all that. It'll certainly be interesting to see if the 2-5 game gets more popular. Always plenty of games with those blinds in Las Vegas, so I'd imagine people want to play that.<br /><br />No doubt plenty of the regulars will find a reason to moan about this new change, but I think it's a good move. I'll probably still call all the games by their old names for ages though. Calling something <span style="font-style: italic;">The Monkey Game</span> just has a ring about it doesn't it? I remember once hearing Bambos asking what the game was, "Monkey or Half-Monkey?" What kind of slang are we going to use now?the chimney sweephttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07247770049906697913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3499142548823856740.post-17756781845465318622008-08-20T04:49:00.000-07:002008-08-21T16:39:16.512-07:00Tilt!!!!The appliance of Chaos Theory in poker really hit home last night. That is, much like the Butterfly Effect, what has happened earlier in a game can affect you for hours, days, even months into the future.<br /><br />I am referring to Tilt of course. I can only think of one player who seems immune to it. Recently I thought I had bested it, but I must have grown complacent with my seeming imperviousness to steaming.<br /><br />I had a bad night in the £250 game the other day, mainly due to bad play. So last night when I went to the Vic I decided to just grind it out in the £100 game. I still felt antsy so I figured I'd be better off getting my head back together at a lower limit.<br /><br />Well, what a good move - it wasn't long before I was winning and playing ok. Some guy came to the game and it was pretty clear that it was maybe his first time playing in a public card room.<br />It wasn't long before the dealer had to tell him off for string-betting. Sure enough, it wasn't long before he did the same thing again. This time, though, he got annoyed about it and now a couple of the other players, including myself, politely told him why the Vic has a rule about dropping your chips in one by one.<br /><br />We told him to either state the amount of his raise or just cut out the chips behind the line on the table and then put them in the pot. Not hard is it? Well, for some reason this guy just didn't get it and continued to make the same mistakes.<br /><br />He also was acting out of turn a lot and doing things like trying to take his own change out of the pot. If the bet was £55 he would count out the amount in red chips really s-l-o-w-l-y instead of just putting two blues and a red in. All petty stuff I know and I've seen it all before, but for some reason this jerkoff really got under my skin.<br /><br />Usually players who are new in a cardroom tend to be nervous (understandable) so you expect them to make mistakes. I guess I got annoyed with this guy because instead of being nervous he was trying too hard to be matey whilst simultaneously being a blowhard.<br /><br />The truth is, he was just a tool who wanted a little social interaction to go with his poker game, and there's no crime in that.The real crime was perpetrated by me when I decided I had to iron him out just to get him to shut up and fuck off from the game. Did I wait until I had the goods to teach this schmuck a lesson? Of course not - I had let it get personal and it wasn't long before I had dusted off my winnings to him plus a little more.<br /><br />I actually can't remember the last time I got the needle with somebody like that. Usually I can just ignore it or laugh it off. Jeez, was that guy really so bad? Probably, but certainly not worth me playing like an absolute cunt. God, I'm even more irritated by the whole episode as I type it out and read it back.<br /><br />But it's nothing to do with the novice player, it's obvious I reacted to him the way I did because I still hadn't gotten over doing my bollocks on Sunday night.<br /><br />The fact is, as poker players we are in a semi-permanent state of vexation aren't we? Even when one is in a better mood because one is winning in the game there's always some fuckwit at the table testing your patience.<br /><br />A great example of this occurred in the £250 game on Sunday night after Stavros won a huge pot off Adam Stoneham<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></span></span></span>* When the pot was over Stavros moved seats and at the same time a new dealer came to the table. The new dealer saw Stavros sitting down in an empty seat with a pile of chips and innocently asked Stavros if he wanted to post.<br /><br />Now everybody knows that Stavros is, to put it mildly, irascible, but you'd think that immediately after winning a nice big pot like that even Stavros might be feeling somewhat jollier than usual. Heh, you'll be alright. Stavros exploded! The poor old dealer got a right telling off - "<span style="font-style: italic;">I just moved seats from over there you idiot! You're worse than Hitler some of you!</span>"<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />* Folded round to Stoneham in the SB who makes it £30. Stavros in the BB makes it £200. Call. Flop 8 3 7, two clubs. Check, Stavros bets £700. Stoneham calls. Turn a blank. Stoneham checks and now Stavros goes all in for £20k! Long, long, long, long, long dwell from Stoneham - he had about 7 grand left - and then he finally calls. River a 9. Stoneham has 8 T and Stavros wins with 8 3 offsuit for a flopped two pair.the chimney sweephttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07247770049906697913noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3499142548823856740.post-82892428139888686522008-08-11T05:48:00.000-07:002008-08-20T04:28:56.724-07:00When I Grow Up I Want To Be YilmazI found myself in a tough spot in the £250 NLH game with Neil directly on my left and then Yilmaz immediately after. Imagine trying to get through those two. Yilmaz especially.<br /><br />Mind you, it was a pleasure to watch Yilmaz play. He may be one of the best LAG players I have ever seen. Fearless and tricky, you never know what he has. Complete air or the nuts, he's always putting pressure on you.<br /><br />Now that I think about it, I should have just bought in for the minimum and played a pre-flop game. Trying to take on the likes of Neil and Yilmaz with a pesky middling stack is akin to climbing Everest on your knees.<br /><br />A huge £32k pot developed between the two of them at one point with Neil being on the losing end of a set over set situation. Poor old Neil was very annoyed with himself, but I'm sure if the hands had been reversed Yilmaz would have gone broke too. Also, against a player like Yilmaz whose hand range is so wide, slowing down with middle set is only leaving money on the table in the long run (imo, whatever that's worth).<br /><br />As Neil said at one point I was playing "squeaky tight". The irony was that the few times I woke up with a hand one of the other super-granites at the table would come in from the cold and raise it up.<br /><br />Steve Luca, very solid and probably playing tighter than me (in fact I know he was from another hand which I'll talk about in a second), suddenly decided to make it £200 after a bunch of limpers. I look down to see KK in the small blind. Jeez, what a time to find what is quite likely the second best hand. Steve's stack was a healthy looking £2k-ish (I had him covered) so I just called. Naturally Yilmaz couldn't resist and he and one other player came along for the ride too.<br /><br />I suspect many players, especially internet ones, cannot believe I didn't re-raise there, but I felt in my heart of hearts that Steve had the Boots here. Yeah, I know, if I really think I'm beat I should just fold my Kings quietly there too, but it's freakin' pocket kings and I guess AK is also in Steve Luca's range in this spot.<br /><br />Anyway the flop comes down 4 4 5, a pretty safe flop for an over-pair and we all check to the pre-flop raiser who duly bets £300. Wow, that's a small bet. I have Yilmaz and the other player behind me, but it's unlikely either has a 4. Still, I'm sure that Steve would check AK here and only bet AA, KK and QQ. I couldn't get it out of my head that he had aces so I went with my feelings and folded.<br /><br />Wha??!?!! Yeah I could be wrong, but wtf? It was going to cost me another two grand to find out and I figured there were better spots. Steve told me later at the cash desk that he did have aces. Of course, he could be lying.<br /><br />So why did I think this particular player had a better hand than me in that spot? Well, earlier on I limped UTG with 44. By some miracle neither Neil or Yilmaz raised (one of them might have even folded!) before the flop and four or five of us saw the flop. 4 6 K - gin! I led out for about £50, one call and then Steve Luca called.<br /><br />The turn comes an ace and now I bet £100. The middle guy folds and now Steve made it £300. Hmmm, trip 6s is a definite possibility here, in fact when he called on the flop I thought, "Uh oh, what's that about?". I may be tight, but I'm not a big one for folding sets, so I just shrugged and stuck it all-in.<br /><br />Steve now went into the tank and as he gave it the genuine dwell I realised that trip 6s was odds on. Shit. My very good hand had now turned into a bluff.<br /><br />Luckily I also realised that it really looked like I had limped pre-flop with aces or kings because I was expecting a raise behind me from either Neil or Yilmaz. I could see that was the very thought going around Steve's head. Unlike Neil I'm useless at talking my opponents into doing what I want them to do, so I just kept quiet, funking for him to muck.<br /><br />Thankfully, Steve is not the type to angle-shoot or piss about and after not too long he passed his hand saying that I must have aces or kings. Phew. That's how tight he is (middle set on the flop! I could <span style="font-style: italic;">never</span> fold that!) which is why I didn't feel too bad about folding my kings later on.<br /><br />I guess having a nitty image does pay off sometimes. I'm guessing that Steve Luca probably doesn't play something like pocket fours upfront and he presumes a tight player like myself wouldn't do so either. He's right actually, sometimes I don't.the chimney sweephttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07247770049906697913noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3499142548823856740.post-89611227392518044732008-07-29T06:47:00.000-07:002008-07-29T19:13:47.792-07:00Just Another Night - More RamblingsI'm cashing out at the Vic last night when I hear "Joker" Joe Grech telling somebody else how bad the game was, full of rocks, no gamblers and so on. Hold on, weren't he and I in the same game? There were at least four spots in the game that were good value, one of them being a real superstar who, whilst I was playing, lost about 3 grand.<br /><br />Perception is a big thing in poker, what other players think about you and vice-versa. I was astonished at Grech's impression of the game, it seemed pretty good to me. What did he expect? Players to call raises with Q2 off? That doesn't happen.<br /><br />Then again, maybe I'm wrong and it <span style="font-style: italic;">was</span> a bad game; poker is so subjective and one's ideas about the game and how it should be played are often changing.<br /><br />As I drove home and reflected on the session I thought to myself what terrible cards I kept getting dealt. Even for me I was playing super-duper granite. But hang on, didn't I win three pots (two of them being a decent size) with runner-runner back-door stuff? How often does that happen? So much for thinking I wasn't getting any hands when in fact on three occasions I was dealt perfect turn and river cards.<br /><br />There was also a guy in the game who, when I first came across him, I thought was a complete fucking prick. Of course, as time has gone by and I've played with him a few times, I now don't think so badly of him.<br /><br />I still think he's a bit of a loudmouth idiot seeking validation from his peers in the poker room, but now I don't mind his company. I know he's not an absolute dog like some of the scumbags one finds in poker rooms.<br /><br />Still, it never ceases to amaze me the amount of times you meet people who have "found themselves" in poker. That is, they've found an environment where they feel like they fit in. It's alright to be "wacky". It's all part of the game isn't it? Their boorish personalities can now expand because it's all a part of table image.<br /><br />It's good fun yelling for a black deuce on the turn because they've seen other "pros" do it. It's great that now you can straddle and look like a fearless gambler. Even better, you can berate the rocks for playing tight and bask in the glow of approval from the other "real" players. They've learnt all the funny phrases like Michael Arnold's "One seat here!" or Francis Rohan's immortal "You'll be alright".<br /><br />They've finally made some friends (or at least think they have made friends) with whom they share a passion. Poker attracts all kinds of misfits and now all of a sudden they've found what they think is their spiritual home. And it's full of like-minded people like themselves.<br /><br />Except it's not. It just seems like it. A lot of the fellas who were friendly to them in the beginning probably just wanted them to keep playing in the game. And, like I said, after you've spent a bit of time playing cards with the same people you can't help but exchange at least a few friendly words.<br /><br />And soon after that you're chatting more. About how so and so is a good tournament player , but useless at cash. About your ex-wives. About some strip club in Vegas. And so on. Next thing you know, you're both getting the same flight to Barcelona. Or the Eurostar to Paris for the big festival at the Aviation. You might even start swapping percentages in the same tournaments. Maybe even lend each other money.<br /><br />Basically it's the poker equivalent of having a drug buddy. That is, not a real friend, just somebody else suffering from the same sickness as you. Misery loves company. Somebody else who understands the weird sub-culture you have entered into. Squares and outsiders have no idea what you're going through. In fact, they find it very boring, so you have to have someone else who understands what you're going on about when you tell that bad beat story.<br /><br />If this all sounds judgemental and a little dark I didn't really mean it to. After all, one of the attractions of poker for me was that I felt I had discovered my own <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Cheers </span>("<span style="font-style: italic;">Where everybody knows your name..."</span>). Kindred spirits were all around me, all the faces said hello to me, other players asked what I thought about a particular coup, I was one of the boys. Fuck, I even used to put on a bit of a "persona" when playing. Thankfully I stopped that when I realised it just wasn't my style.<br /><br />The truth is poker is a great escape. I believe that applies to both the recreational player and the pro. For me it is even more true than ever before, now that I have had a kid. I don't care whether the game is good or bad anymore, it's just great to be away from the infinite drudgery of domesticity.<br /><br />I also remember a period a few years ago when things were going pretty badly in my life, but as soon as I sat down in a game at the Vic all those problems just melted away. Incidentally, I went on a terrific upswing at that time too - I've never understood those poker writers who say that one shouldn't play when one has problems at home; what a load of bollocks, that's the best time to play.the chimney sweephttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07247770049906697913noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3499142548823856740.post-39810204406279033312008-06-25T06:15:00.000-07:002008-06-25T08:03:52.580-07:00Let's Hear It For Queen HighI remember reading about some big pot Doyle Brunson won off Johnny Moss with Jack high when Doyle called a big bet from Moss on the river because he correctly put Johnny on a busted straight draw.<br /><br />Also, my mate the Champ told me about some sick call with Queen high against Erik Lindgren at the WSOPE last year. And, of course, Duthola's <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,2127398,00.html">great call</a> with Queen high in the big cash game at the Venetian during last year's WSOP.<br /><br />I've always loved these sorts of stories and have always figured that I'm unlikely to make this kind of play owing to my super-nitty rockiness.<br /><br />Anyway, last night at the Vic I played a pot in the £250 NL game which was vaguely similar to all the legendary coups above. I've just lost a small pot where I've thought the other player was looking to check-raise me, but I've gone and bet anyway and of course he has check-raised me and then I've folded pretty quickly, annoyed with myself for falling into his rather obvious trap.<br /><br />I'm still hotted up when I look down at the powerhouse that is the QdJd so I make it £50 to play. Only thing is the UTG player who is short-stacked had actually already raised it to £30. Oops. Oh well, my raise still goes and I guess I'll swallow if the UTG now goes all in.<br /><br />A couple of other players call and the UTG just calls my min re-raise. Four of us see the flop which comes down 10c 2c 9h. The SB checks and UTG bets £100 and now I make a dodgy call with my up-and-down straight draw (I told you I was steaming).<br /><br />Action gets back to the SB and he now ships it all in for £575. Marvellous. UTG folds and now the action is on me. The SB is a little chinese guy that I have tangled with a couple of times. The first time was a hand where he completely out-played me and during that particular session he looked like a pretty strong player. The next time I played with this guy though, it was the complete opposite - he was terrible! Chasing every draw, playing almost every hand, playing any ace etc.<br /><br />Anyway, I thought about it for a while and thought it most likely he had a flush draw, maybe 8c7c or Jc8c, that type of hand. I had noted that this player likes to gamble with his first buy-in, looking for a quick double-up. Of course, he could easily have had Ax or Kx clubs (even QcJc for the freeroll against me) , but, fuck, you know how it is when you get stubborn in a pot, you convince yourself that they have a particular hand and then you stick the chips in.<br /><br />Turn is an offsuit 10 and the river an offsuit ace. We're both reluctant to turn our hands over.<br /><br />"Nothing, I just had a flush draw", he says.<br /><br />"Well, I've got nothing too, how big is your nothing?" I say.<br /><br />He shows 5c4c. Sweet. Ship it etc.<br /><br />Having seen his hand I figured my hand was a small favourite seeing as I was already winning on the flop, but it turns out that I'm a 49% dog.the chimney sweephttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07247770049906697913noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3499142548823856740.post-72080286639155286732008-06-09T05:49:00.000-07:002008-06-09T12:08:58.036-07:00Simply IrresistableThe Vic are running a crazy promotion for the month of June whereby whatever the date is, that is the lucky number on roulette and for an hour between 3pm and 4pm and then between midnight and 1am they will pay 40-1 odds on that number.<br /><br />Talk about positive expectation. So I played last night in their salon prive and got stuck £600. Wonderful. Maybe it was because I was multi-tabling two wheels with DY that the number 8 only hit once (8th june, you see).<br /><br />Unlike certain blessed individuals - The Champ and JQ who had this proposition right off to the tune of £10k each or something sick like that - DY is an absolute bok and a cooler at the same time. We never had a chance.<br /><br />Of course I'm joking and I don't really mind losing that money. It was a blinding bet giving us an edge of just under 10%. When else do you ever find that in a casino?<br /><br />What was funny was a couple of other regular punters telling me how one of the wheels I was playing was really "terrible" and how one of the croupiers spins the ball "too violently". Also, one of the pit bosses saying stuff like, "It doesn't matter what the odds are, you still gotta hit it doncha?"the chimney sweephttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07247770049906697913noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3499142548823856740.post-10714175670671090612008-06-02T05:35:00.000-07:002008-06-03T04:40:32.666-07:00British Championship of BlackjackLast night I played in the British Championship of Blackjack at the Vic. Obviously I'm giving this tournament its full title with a huge dollop of irony and hope you can all picture the smirk on my face as I type it out.<br /><br />This tournament was in the card room and cost £100 to enter (3 rebuys and an add-on were allowed too). There was no juice which was about the best thing going for it. Because it was run by the Vic and was aimed more at their regular punters from downstairs as opposed to the poker players it was complete chaos with absolutely no regard for any kind of "rules". I put that in inverted commas as I doubt there exist any rules for a BJ tourney in Britain. I'm sure if one played in the Million Dollar BJ tournament at the Hilton in Las Vegas there would be plenty of rules regarding asking other people for advice, speaking in other languages besides English at the table whilst bets were being made and so on.<br /><br />Besides all that it was still exceptional value; the amount of dead money compared to a poker tournament was through the roof. I think the only person who knew what he was doing in it was Shoreman (luckily I had a 20% saver with him as he came second, well played Jon). I have to say the skill involved in this is probably a lot higher than in a poker tournament. Tournament BJ strikes me as extremely technical and I know I must have made plenty of mistakes. Of course, everybody else in the competition played even worse so I guess I had a vague edge.<br /><br />The ability to come up with the right bet size at the end when you have to not only try and catch up with the chip leader, but also make sure the players close behind you don't overtake you is a real headfuck, let me tell ya.<br /><br />The small amount of literature I had read on the subject was helpful, but tended to be based on BJ tournaments which have rounds of 30 hands as opposed to 12 hands like last night. Also, the Vic had a secret bet which really puts the cat amongst the pigeons.<br /><br />I was reminded of when I first played poker and the only game at the Vic was 7-card, pot limit. The only book I could find was Sklansky's book on stud which of course was all about limit poker, but I had no idea how the different betting structure made an impact on the game so I was completely at sea.<br /><br />Anyway, I made it through to round two, but busted out after 6 hands in the second round. There was an amusing moment in the first round where I had 675 chips on the 10th hand. After hand 10 players were allowed an add-on of 1,500 chips (rebuys got you 1,000). Anytime you had 500 or less you were allowed to rebuy. Wanting to be able to rebuy and add-on I made a bet of 175 and proceeded to hit on 18 purposely busting my hand, much to the consternation of the other players at my table.<br /><br />If I hadn't done that I would only have been able to take the add-on which would have meant that going into the last two hands my chip stack would have been 2,350 as opposed to the 3,000 I had after my seemingly crazy play. And believe you me I needed that as I squeaked through by three chips.<br /><br />Shoreman nearly got himself barred by constantly trying to impose some semblance of order on the proceedings. He had to tell the dealer and the floorstaff not to turn the secret bets face up, constantly remind the floor to enforce the English only rule and also ask for players not to get advice from railbirds watching the action. He also got reprimanded when he tried to stop a string bet from the player in front of him who wanted to add more to his stack after he saw that Jon was min-betting.<br /><br />As they pulled him aside Shoreman was even told he was right, but to keep his mouth shut. If the Vic are going to run more of these tournaments, and I would imagine they are as last night was quite successful, they better get their shit together. They wouldn't let those sorts of shenanigans go on in a £10 poker tournament, so why is a BJ competition exempt from the normal codes of conduct in a tournament setting?<br /><br />Another interesting moment occurred when all the dealers shuffled after hand 6. Completely pointless and time consuming although a decent red herring for those players who thought counting was a useful skill in this format. Anyway, Jon and I asked the dealer why she was shuffling to which she replied, "So nobody can cheat".<br /><br />"Eh? How are they cheating?"<br /><br />"Card counting, that's cheating"<br /><br />"Er..., no it's not"<br /><br />"Yes it is, card counters are cheaters and we don't want them here"<br /><br />Wow, management did a good brainwashing number on this one, didn't they?the chimney sweephttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07247770049906697913noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3499142548823856740.post-34120929123300095942008-05-28T05:37:00.000-07:002008-05-28T06:25:10.432-07:00The Golden RuleHe who has the gold makes the rules.<br /><br />Or, if you're playing poker, don't ruffle the feathers of the star.<br /><br />So I'm in a great £250 NL game at the Vic last night, mainly because of one player, an Italian businessman who is happily blowing off steam. You know the sort, raising every other hand, making big bets with not much and so forth (not that these players aren't dangerous; you can suddenly find yourself under a lot of pressure against one of these types).<br /><br />Anyway, he's losing about two grand when it's all folded around to him in the small blind. He puts out a £25 chip with the intention of raising. The big blind, Colin (not Gill or Kennedy for all you Vic regulars), one of those annoying idiots who never knows when its his blind or how much the bet is or even when the action is on him, now makes a fuss that he didn't hear the Italian say raise.<br /><br />To be fair to Colin the Wanker, Paul Parker was having a noisy conversation with Rick Gladding in the next seat (is it possible for Paul not to have a noisy conversation?) so it was hard to hear what was going on. But then again this Colin the Cretin never ever knows how much the raise is or that it's up to him or anything, so what difference?<br /><br />The Italian insists that his intention was to raise, but, oh no, Colin the Dick is having none of it, rules is rules. Technically Colin the Fuckwit is right of course; the Italian only put a single chip in which constitutes a call (nobody was sure whether the Italian said raise or not and the Italian himself didn't seem to mention this factor).<br /><br />So now the Italian is made to call, they end up checking down the pot which Colin the Shithead wins by making a pair and now the Italian has the hump so he gets up and leaves. Nice one Colin.<br /><br />I mean, what a nit. All so he could save £15 and see a flop. The irony was that Colin the Moron was one of the big beneficiaries of the Italian's lively play. I guess he wanted to lock up the win and piss everbody else off. Job done.<br /><br />Some poker players put on an act and maybe this Colin the Twat is like that, but he seemed genuinely unaware of what a stupid thing he'd done.<br /><br />Oh well, rant over; maybe I'm being a little excessive with my vitriol for Colin the Stupid Motherfucker, but I can't help it. The whole table was dumbfounded and it wasn't long before the game broke up.the chimney sweephttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07247770049906697913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3499142548823856740.post-52895689927917830972008-05-07T15:28:00.000-07:002008-05-08T15:58:42.202-07:00Surely It's A Split Pot - Oh, It's Not...So I'm playing in a lively £250 PLO game at the Vic when the following hand occurs.<br /><br />The guilty party in this coup is a veteran of the Vic, definitely a player who should know better.<br /><br />I raise UTG with some sort of double suited rundown hand, the veteran calls and now the star re-raises the pot. This very much looks like aces; both me and the veteran call as well as another player I think. Whatever, there was about £480 in the pot. BTW, the effective stack size between the veteran and the star is about £3k.<br /><br />Flop comes down K Q T. I check, the veteran checks and now the Star bets £250. I fold and the veteran makes it £750. The star now calls that raise and re-raises the pot. The veteran now goes all-in for a little over 2 and a half grand which the star calls.<br /><br />Sitting there watching the hand play out I figured that both players had the nuts at that point (<span style="font-weight: bold;">A J</span> - as if you need me to tell you) and that the veteran had the freeroll, two pairs or trips to go with his Broadway.<br /><br />But no!!! The Veteran turned over J9xx (can't remember the other two cards, but they were in the region of the flop so he did have outs). Considering that it was highly likely that the star had aces, surely it wouldn't have been too hard to imagine that a Jack was one of his sidecards?<br /><br />I don't know, I've been guilty of some terrible plays myself, but getting it all-in with the sucker end of the straight in PLO? Sure, the other player was a star, but you just have to wait until you have the goods against these types (btw, the board blanked off and the star won a nice pot). I'm sure I wasn't the only "local" who felt a bit embarrassed for the veteran.<br /><br />This brings me to another matter - as you can see above, I have been pretty quick to criticise a horrible play where another player has seemingly slaughtered his money senselessly. But the truth is in poker, we sometimes do some fucking idiotic things in the heat of the moment. I always think that at least for a nano-second there, we figured it was the right play.<br /><br />Anyway, the reason I'm suddenly being so fair to the veteran (and believe me, there are many Vic regulars who would enjoy a delicious helping of schadenfreude if they knew who I was talking about) is because, like the idiot I am, I posted what I thought was an interesting hand that I played in the £250 NL game on the 2+2 strategy forum.<br /><br />There were a couple of reasonable responses, but most of the thread ended up saying what a complete donkey I am etc etc. Now of course I expected that, but it made me think how quick poker players are to just slam other players and so on.<br /><br />The amount of times you hear people cunting off other players or somebody gives you an incredibly forceful and emphatic opinion on how badly a certain hand was played. You'd think that none of these fuckers ever played a hand badly in their life, when in fact quite the opposite is true.the chimney sweephttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07247770049906697913noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3499142548823856740.post-53319354077558862982008-04-28T06:45:00.000-07:002008-04-28T07:41:19.370-07:00I Love L.A.Good games at the Vic are a bit like buses - you're waiting and waiting and waiting; just when you've given up along come two or three all at once.<br /><br />I played in a good £250 PLO game last night and then sat in a blinding £250 NL Holdem game. The Holdem game was great all because of a super spewy bluff station from L.A. When I got in the game this guy had about £8k in front of him which steadily decreased as one by one the different players at the table picked off his bluffs.<br /><br />To give you an idea of how good the game was I experienced a 3 grand swing from winning to losing back to winning which is unusual for me. I played KK really badly out of position at one point and lost a big pot to this guy, but still managed to come back and end up winning on the night.<br /><br />This guy said his regular game was the $20/$40 NL at the Commerce. I've never played there, but my experience with this player only confirms all the good things I have read and heard about the Commerce. He's probably a winning player in L.A....<br /><br />As an aside I noticed Gary the Armenian was collecting the £2.50 chips (these are for the half hour time collection of £7.50). Of course it slowed down the time charge as now the dealer had make change etc and at one point even had to ask another dealer to go to the desk and get us some more £2.50 chips. What reason would somebody have to take these chips and put them in their pocket?<br /><br />I wanted to call him out on it, but Gary is a bit of a hothead and I didn't feel like getting into an argument. Instead I mentioned it to a couple of other players and a few of us "innocently" asked where all the £2.50 chips had gone when the collection came around.<br /><br />Also in the game was Neil "Bad Beat" Channing, fresh from his Irish Open victory. It was nice to play with Neil again seeing as recently he has been playing only the monkey game or higher (the big games have been his regular feeding grounds for a quite a while now, not just since his Irish win btw).<br /><br />I think Neil was a bit disgusted with me when I ironed out the L.A bluffer at about quarter to 3 in the morning and then immediately got up and left. To be fair to myself the L.A player got up as soon as he lost the hand and looked like he wasn't coming back, plus I had been intending to go at about 1.30 originally, but the game was so good I decided to stay another hour (I must stress I wasn't staying on just to "get out of it". I broke that bad habit long ago). Also when you have a 16 month old baby at home whom you have to look after in the morning it makes it tough playing til 5am like the old days.<br /><br />Kenny Wong was also in the game and it was great to have him back and hear the banter between him and Neil about who was the better tournament player.the chimney sweephttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07247770049906697913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3499142548823856740.post-20956326989214318292008-03-23T06:33:00.000-07:002008-04-05T06:03:43.927-07:00A New LowSo I'm playing in the £250 No Limit Holdem game at the Vic when the following occurs. One of those non-pots happens, one where the players check it down and basically there's a bowl of rice out there, or, in this case, the grand sum of £40.<br /><br />With a final board of K Q J 3 3 a young American kid (good player btw) declares, "Nothing, I have 9 high". His opponent, a middle aged South African gentleman says, "Oh, I have 10 high". They turn their cards over and the dealer pushes the pot to the South African.<br /><br />Of course all of you lot out there reading this have already spotted that both players are actually playing the board, so therefore it should have been a split pot. Why the American kid didn't notice I don't know, but if you've been playing for a while you get tired. The South African gentleman is one of those types of players who would have to be told. As for the rest of us at the table I guess we weren't paying much attention (any internet players reading have got to love that don't they? So much for live players being such keen observers...)<br /><br />In fairness to the dealer, who should have noticed immediately, he was actually requesting to be taken off the table as he had already been dealing for two hours without a break in this particular game.<br /><br />Anyway, as the next hand is being dealt somebody at the table now realises what happened and mentions that the pot should have been split. Everybody else at the table including the dealer realises too and he now informs the South African that he owes the American kid £20. In fact, the only player who is utterly oblivious to what has happened is this South African guy. He says that the hand is all over and that's that. Fair enough I suppose; it was a dealer error and he doesn't have to give the kid any money if he doesn't want to.<br /><br />In fact, the American kid was kind of taken aback so I told him to get a ruling, because it also seemed like the South African wasn't taking the situation seriously at all. Unfortunately for the Kid the dealer called the wrong floor person over (wrong in the sense that he called another dealer over as opposed to an actual floor person who is properly authorised to give rulings) who then gave a ruling in favour of the South African (probably the correct ruling as it happens).<br /><br />Anyway, the point is, to me, that it doesn't matter what the ruling would be, but basically everybody else at that table (Russian Alex, Fred, Gary Mills, Rick Gladding, a young Greek kid whose name I can't remember, and of course, myself) would have given the American Kid the £20 without another thought. I mean, maybe I'm making a mountain out of a molehill, but that South African behaved like a total dick, didn't he? (Just to make it clear - there wasn't a huge argument, the South African or the kid didn't make a huge issue out of it, there were no raised voices and all blood pressure remained stable etc).<br /><br />I dunno, I was dumbfounded that somebody could be such a nit over twenty quid.<br /><br />On a slightly different note, does anybody out there know why the blinds in the £250 Pot Limit game are £5-£5 with an optional straddle of £10 whereas the blinds in the £250 No Limit are £5-£10 with an optional straddle of £25? How come both games don't have the same structure? I don't get it. As you can tell, the no limit game plays a lot bigger than the pot limit game.the chimney sweephttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07247770049906697913noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3499142548823856740.post-9745989996116693052008-02-24T06:56:00.000-08:002008-02-28T13:48:49.447-08:00Progress, sort of....Wow! The Vic has installed a shuffling machine (I only saw one and heard it cost about £8,000, so it's very likely they only have one). The bad news is that it will only be used in the raked game. No surprise there really.<br /><br />I reckon it'll take about 10 days for that machine to pay for itself...<br /><br />Edit: They have two shuffle machines and DY tells me he actually played in a non-raked game with one of the machines in use.the chimney sweephttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07247770049906697913noreply@blogger.com1